The present disclosure relates to clamps that attach to rails, and particularly to clamps that attach to accessory rails of surgical tables to support accessories used during surgical procedures. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to rail clamps having movable jaws that permit the clamps to couple to accessory rails without having to slide the clamp onto the rail from an end of the rail.
Accessory rail clamps to attach accessories, such as leg stirrups and arm boards, to accessory rails of surgical tables are known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,980. While many surgical tables have accessory rails of a common size, some specialized surgical tables have been developed which do not include these standard-size accessory rails, but instead have frame members (also considered to be rails according to this disclosure) of different sizes to which patient support devices or other surgical equipment may attach. For example, specialized orthopedic surgical tables have been developed for orthopedic surgery and a subset of these specialized orthopedic surgical tables, referred to in the art as “Jackson” tables, have been designed specifically for spinal surgery. Examples of the “Jackson” table may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,088,706; 5,131,106; 5,613,254; and 6,260,220. Because accessory rails of surgical tables are typically made of metal, such as stainless steel, and because it is desirable for tables used in orthopedic procedures to be substantially radiolucent so that x-ray images and fluoroscopic images of patients may be taken during surgical procedures, most Jackson tables do not have standard-size accessory rails.
Many of the devices and accessories which attach to accessory rails of surgical tables, including frame members of Jackson tables, rely on one or more threaded screws to clamp against the rail or to act upon some other member that clamps against the rail. It is not uncommon for multiple accessories to be attached to accessory rails during surgery. It can become cumbersome and time consuming to screw and unscrew the multitude of threaded screws associated with such a multitude of accessories if, for example, one or more of the accessories need to be repositioned along the rail before or during a surgical procedure. Furthermore, some caregivers may tighten a screw of an accessory to such an extent that other caregivers with less strength may have difficulty in loosening, or are completely unable to loosen, the threaded screw. Accordingly, there is a need for a accessory rail clamp that clamps onto, and unclamps from, an accessory rail quickly and easily and that, when clamped, has a fairly repeatable and consistent amount of clamping force.